How-To's & Tweaks

The true factor that distinguishes the enthusiast from the casual user (besides the frequent wet dreams involving printed circuit boards) is the desire to tweak one's system. Anybody can buy a new computer. Only the few can improve the computer they currently have, or even have a desire to learn, and only a fraction of those truly enjoy the process. Welcome to our world.

Recent articles:

The Ars Technica Guide to Video Capturing

Posted 3/20/2003 - 3:02AM, byMatt "Deffexor" Woodward
For those of you who read Ars Technica, but do not visit our forum, we have an Audio/Visual Club where we talk shop about everything ranging from TVs to Stereos to Speakers to Videocards and everything in between. Lately, there has been a lot of interest in capturing broadcast television and converting old VHS home movies to a more timeless digital format, such as VCD, SVCD, and DVD. As more and more people become interested, it becomes increasingly difficult to educate everyone on how to do this properly. Tapping the collective consciousness of the Ars A/V forum, we bring you the first part of the Ars Technica Guide to Video Capturing, Cleaning, and Compression:

As computers become faster and disk storage space becomes larger, we are able to more deftly manipulate digital data taken from analog mediums and frequently "improve" the original analog content using various techniques in the digital world. This series of guides will take you through an introductory course on the proper techniques of capturing analog video, cleaning up the video capture, and encoding the digital video into various new formats so that the original analog content can live on into the 21st Century.

This guide is the first part in a 3-part series and will cover Video Capture on a Windows PC using the (very affordable) Hauppauge WinTV-dbx (401) card. If you do not have a WinTV card, don't feel left out. The principles and considerations discussed in this guide are also applicable to owners of ATI All-In-Wonder cards and other Brooktree-based TV cards, too.

Nintendo Redivivus: how to resuscitate an old friend

Posted 2/12/2003 - 2:09AM, byKen "Caesar" Fisher
Today we've got something for you that's a little off the beaten path: how to bring back your old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System from the dead. Rob Nelson is here with the surgical know-how, and if you've got a NES laying around begging for a little retro fun, then this article is for you.

Thanks to this wonderfully advanced piece of 8-bit hardware, a large number of us gamers got our start in gaming at a young age. Then we went off to college, where we spent less time playing and more time trying to get the damn console to work. The frustration of getting your favorite game to work without wiping your save game, or restarting it after the screen turned to junk 15 minutes into the game; ah, the memories. To be young again, and to have a pristine NES.

I think I've found my project for spring break. Enjoy!

Security Practicum: Essential Home Wireless Security Practices

Posted 11/5/2002 - 1:34AM, byCaesar
If network security on the average Internet-connected desktop is a serious concern, how much more so should it be in situations where a Wireless LAN (WLAN) is involved. Wireless Routers and Access Points are shipped with the most lax security options possible in order to facilitate easy installations (with the exception of Microsoft, who does require WEP). The problem is that users have to take the next step and start locking their WLAN down after it's setup, but many don't for a variety of reasons. Hence today's Wireless Security Practicum.

You might wonder why anyone would even want access to your network. In most scenarios, your wireless network provides perpetrators with two things: 1) access to your local network (the computers connected up in your house), which if unsecured means access to your data, and better yet, 2) access to the 'net. 11Mbits/sec isn't a bad little heist for someone who wants to spend all night downloading pr0n from your connection, or perhaps they'd rather mail bomb the government or something. It's no matter--just don't be an easy target. We're gonna help.

This article is aimed at covering the major techniques for reducing your WLAN's vulnerabilities using the tools and methods available to your standard home user or administrator in a small networking environment. If you have a WLAN, this is for you.

BIOS Arcana: description and translation

Posted 9/12/2002 - 2:43AM, byYaz
The key to configuring fast and stable systems often involves tweaking the way they operate at the most basic level via the BIOS. While most enthusiasts are familiar with some settings that yield significant performance benefits, many other BIOS settings remain poorly described and may unknowingly play a crucial role in system performance and stability. Wayne Hardman--a.k.a. "Hat Monster"--has written up a detailed article explaining the function of these settings and how to set them properly to have a high-performance, reliable system.

The RAM options are some of the most difficult to understand, but potentially the greatest performance boosts the BIOS can give you. The sharp amongst you will read "greatest performance boosts" as "easiest ways to lose stability" and you'd be right too, in some cases. If you're intending to max out all these settings, you're going to need the RAM and motherboard of the Gods. That's not to say you can't compromise and tweak up some settings but leave others more relaxed. That's what the the art of tweaking is all about: finding that sweet spot.

Indeed, tweaking BIOS settings is a personal experience. While some people like to push their systems to their absolute limits, other people prefer to play it safe and minimize any chances for instability. However, it is important that system builders are empowered with the knowledge to make those choices for themselves, and this article helps to further that objective. Read on....

Our How-To's and Tweaks fall into these categories:

When should you upgrade? How and what should you upgrade? Building a system for the first time? C'mon in, and let us help. We've got pictorial system building information, and amazing community resources.

Mmm. OS & Software Enhancements involve messing around with things that aren't already broken. The reason they take more guts is that your attempts to bring things from "okay" to "great" could end up with them in "shitty" if you're not careful. But hey, no pain, no gain! And while we can't guarantee that you're never going to have problems, with our advice, you'll greatly decrease your odds of screwing things up royally.

Overclocking. It's all the rage, isn't it? Come see the the whys and wherefores (and some how-to's, as well) of today's hot ways to keep your system cool, and how to enter into the world of overclocking.